Western gold investors clearly see good reasons to add to their positions. The Gold Investor Index tracks
the buying and selling activity on BullionVault, the vast majority of
whose users are in the United States, United Kingdom or Eurozone.

The Gold Investor Index rose to a six-month high in
November, the fourth straight monthly increase. In
total, BullionVault users added 559 kilos of gold to their bullion
holdings, the second month in a row they've added half a tonne.

We asked a few of our users why they've been buying gold recently, as well as what they expect from 2013.

Among
those who added to their holdings last month the principle reason given
for buying gold was as part of their long-term savings strategy.
Another major reason given was central bank policy.

"Central
banks will carry out more quantitative easing to relieve pressure and
try to stave off a serious economic setback," one BullionVault user
said, "while the economy will slowly stagnate. Expect mediocrity and
stagnation (Japan-style), not disaster."

"We are still not over the worse," added another.

"And the global wallpapering over what are incredibly large economic cracks is extremely worrying."

Increased
demand for gold may simply mean Western investors have on aggregate
grown more bullish towards the metal in recent weeks. But it may also
mean they have become more concerned about what the coming year holds in
store.

"Politicians,
having wrecked the market mechanisms with ever larger interference and
greater levels of debt, now have little choice but to devalue paper
money, and probably allow national defaults on sovereign debt," one user
replying to our survey said.

"Even
a doubling of personal tax on the so-called wealthy will not fix a
fundamentally flawed out of control 'entitlement' state let alone pay
down the incredibly irresponsible build-up of national debt in the
Western world."

"I
think 2013 will be a bad year in all markets," another survey
respondent added, "but can offer some buying opportunities in gold for
the long term."

Another
added that they view gold as a "long run strategy for buffering
inflation", while a third called gold "monetary collapse insurance".

Those
of us who work in gold investment are sometimes accused of being doom
and gloom mongers, often with some justification. With this in mind,
we'll finish on a positive note with our final quote from our survey:

"I always look forward with hope, because private investors now have options."